Seven (also marketed as Se7en) is an American 1995 Academy Award, BAFTA nominated crime film directed by David Fincher. The story follows two detectives, one retiring and one his replacement, jointly investigating a series of ritualistic murders inspired by the seven deadly sins. Over the course of the investigation they attempt to track down the killer before he has a chance to murder his seven victims. The film was written by Andrew Kevin Walker. It stars Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman as the detectives.

PlotDetective Somerset (Morgan Freeman) is a sensitive, cultured but world-weary and to some extent burnt-out homicide detective. Just one week from retirement following a lengthy career in a grimy and forlorn city he meets Detective Mills (Brad Pitt), his arrogant and inexperienced replacement. The men's personalities clash instantly, with the impulsive, temperamental Mills irritated by Somerset's detached, analytical approach. The next day, on their first assignment together, Mills and Somerset discover a morbidly obese man, face-down in a bowl of spaghetti in his cockroach-infested apartment, wrists and ankles bound with barbed wire. The criminal pathologist confirms that the man was force-fed an enormous quantity of food before dying from internal hemorrhaging. The detectives meet with the police captain, where Somerset requests a reassignment for both him and Mills, angering an already defensive Mills. The captain disagrees, taking Mills off the case and assigning it to Somerset.

The next day, Mills arrives at a crime scene in the office of prominent defense lawyer Eli Gould, whose body was discovered in his office with the word GREED written in blood on the carpet. Meanwhile, Somerset returns to the crime scene in the apartment and discovers the word GLUTTONY written in grease behind the refrigerator, and later approaches both the captain and Mills and reveals that the murders are related and patterned after the seven deadly sins, and that five more people will die. Later that night, Somerset receives an invitation to dinner from Mills' wife Tracy (Paltrow). Following dinner, Somerset and Mills return to Gould's office, where they discover a set of fingerprints spelling out the words "HELP ME" on a wall. The prints are traced to a known sexual predator and drug dealer. A SWAT team and the detectives raid the suspect's apartment where inside, they discover the suspect tied to his bed, barely alive and suffering severe mental and physical atrophy from a year immobile. The word SLOTH is written in feces above the bed.

Tracy secretly contacts Somerset and discusses her impending pregnancy and the reservations she has with raising a family in such a poisonous city. Meanwhile, Somerset pays a contact in the FBI for a list of names on the government database of "flagged" library books which the killer would be interested in. The detectives single out a man named "Jonathan Doe", who surprises them in the hall and immediately opens fire at them. In the ensuing gunfight and chase, Doe injures and disarms Mills and escapes. The detectives scour Doe's apartment and, after discovering pieces of evidence linking him to the previous three murders, are paged to the site of the next victim, a dead prostitute strapped to a bed, the word LUST carved on the door of her room. Also in the room is a man, in near hysterics, who later reveals during interrogation that John Doe ordered him to wear a razor-edged strap-on dildo and have sex with the prostitute. Following the interviews, the two detectives share a solemn drink at a bar.

The next day, a fifth victim is found in her upscale apartment. Originally a professional model, she is discovered with her nose sliced off, a bottle of sleeping pills glued to one hand and a phone glued to the other. Somerset observes that Doe offered the model a choice of calling for help or committing suicide, allowing the model to choose the latter in light of the certain facial disfigurement she would be forced to live with. On the headboard of her bed, the word PRIDE is written in lipstick. From the crime scene, Mills and Somerset return to police headquarters, where they are confronted in the lobby by a man covered in blood, later confirmed as John Doe (Kevin Spacey). Through his lawyer, Doe offers to confess to all the murders if the detectives escort him to the graves of the two remaining victims. Mills and Somerset agree.

Mills, Somerset and Doe drive to the desert beneath the guard of a SWAT helicopter, where Doe directs them to an empty field. As they approach the field, a delivery van arrives on the horizon. Somerset stops the van and confronts the driver, who reveals a box addressed to Detective Mills. Somerset opens the box and recoils in horror, shortly before immediately dashing towards Mills, ordering him to drop his gun and step back from Doe. As Somerset approaches the two, Doe reveals that he visited Tracy and, confessing his own ENVY for the joys of Mills' life, killed Tracy and took "her pretty head" as a souvenir. Doe continues taunting Mills, revealing Tracy's secret pregnancy and relishing Mills' reaction. Enraged, horrified, and grief-stricken, Mills contemplates killing Doe as Somerset attempts to dissuade him, arguing that Doe's revelations are meant to ensure his own death for the sin of envy and forcing Mills to embody the sin of WRATH. Finally pushed to the brink, the distraught Mills shoots Doe in the head and, lost in his own world, slowly walks towards the box containing his wife's head.

Hours later, as Mills sits in a police cruiser in a daze, the captain asks Somerset about his plans. Somerset, after careful contemplation, wearily replies, "I'll be around," before musing: "Ernest Hemingway once wrote: ‘The world is a fine place and worth fighting for’. I agree with the second part."